Birhan Keskin
Arc Publications will be publishing my selected poems of Birhan Keskin, & Silk & Love & Flame, in 2010 as part of the Visible Poets Series, edited by Jean Boase-Beier. For a little pre-taste, you might like to follow the link below to Shearsman Magazine, where you’ll find my translation of her poem, Winter of Murder.

Gaza
Copyright: Ayad Baba

The Light in Hayriye
by Ömer Faruk Toprak It was a road I took morning and night, stretching down to the sea. In winter it got a little muddy but when spring came it looked clean to me. I guess the market traders washed it down with water. I knew all the faces of the fishermen and the young bloods selling fruit & vegetables. If I ever went past without saying hello I’d get no more than five steps when I’d hear them call out behind: “

everything is green, but…
by Hilmi Yavuz everything here is green, like the sun; summer angels have their golden sky… you question fruit blossoms – soon, they’ll return to you as pomegranates ripe with love… wait… Translated by George Messo

Yellow Dog
By Ömer Faruk Toprak In Edremit, on the north facing slopes of Mount Kaz, winter lasts seven months. On the western sides the weather is warmer, and for nine months brings to the people there a spring-like climate. At eight hundred meters the cold, cool air increases. The people of these parts, more especially the villagers and shepherds, know well the coldness, the ill-minded winds of this mountain, and they’r